Freeform's Siren Premiere: Grade It!

Siren‘s Ryn isn’t your typical Freeform heroine — and not just because she eats live rats and sleeps in an old abandoned boat in the woods.

As revealed in Thursday’s two-hour series premiere, Ryn (played by Game of Thrones‘ Eline Powell) is a laundry-stealing, spear-tossing, pervert-killing mermaid who shakes up the small coastal town of Storybrooke Bristol Cove when she shows up wearing nothing but her birthday suit. And it’s not even her birthday!

Like most naked strangers, Ryn — a name she steals from a cartoon she briefly watches through a child’s bedroom window — attracts quite a bit of attention from the townsfolk. But no one shows more interest than Ben (played by British actor Alex Roe), a handsome fisherman with deep ties to Bristol Cove. Ties that go far deeper (and way darker) than he initially thought.

Sure, he always knew he was a descendant of Charles H. Pounder — no relation to C.C.H. Pounder, unfortunately — a man whose obsession with sea-ladies turned Bristol Cove into the mermaid capital of the world. But the town historians apparently chose to leave out the part where Charles and his fishing crew ignited a mermaid “genocide” back in the day. Yikes.

Worth discussing…

* Ben missing his family’s big public obligation in favor of his true passion gave me flashbacks to Ariel missing her solo during the concert at the beginning of The Little Mermaid. Any chance that was intentional?

* Speaking of Disney references, I was not expecting Ryn to identify with that Frozen book. That was funny.

* Ben’s father is the ultimate Freeform dad, equal parts hot and horrifying. (Flash that smile all you want, Mr. Handsome, we know you called your wheelchair-bound wife a “bitch on wheels.”)

* Am I crazy, or does Ben’s girlfriend Maddie have more chemistry with Ryn than she does with him? Come on, she loved every second of that impromptu mammogram Ryn performed on her in the back of Ben’s car.

Your thoughts on Freeform’s newest drama? Grade the premiere below, then drop a comment with your full review.